General information


Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator: Adso Fernández Baena

Trimester: First term

Credits: 4

Teaching staff: 

A hard tackle from Víctor Manuel Navarro to Remesal

Teaching languages


The materials can be provided in Catalan as well as in Spanish or English. 

Skills


Basic skills
  • B1_That students have demonstrated knowledge and understanding in a field of study that is based on general secondary education, and is accustomed to finding at a level that, although with the support of advanced textbooks, also include some aspects that involve knowledge from the forefront of your field of study

     

  • B2_That students know how to apply their knowledge to their job or vocation in a professional way and have the skills they demonstrate by developing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of ​​study

     

Specific skills
  • V12. Apply entrepreneurial initiative and innovation for the creation of new video games and business lines.

  • V13. Apply business vision, marketing and sales, economic analysis and technical knowledge for video game production.

  • V14. Lead teams of designers, artists or developers to achieve the specified goals in the time allotted, in a structured manner according to the methodology established for project management.

Transversal competences
  • T2_That students have the ability to work as members of an interdisciplinary team either as one more member, or performing management tasks in order to contribute to developing projects with pragmatism and a sense of responsibility, making commitments taking into account the available resources

     

Description


The subject "Companies: Case Study" belongs to the Degree in Video Game Design and Production and is part of the subjects related to the business area. The course contributes to students developing analytical skills to help make economic and management decisions in a video game project, especially considering the fit of production in the market in social and cultural terms. The video game market is worked on both from the perspective of producers (video game industry) and the perspective of customers (video game sector), always from the perspective of a competitive product or service business and analyzing discourse, participation and reception. It is desired that the student be able to understand the product or service as a project on which it is necessary to make not only technical decisions but also business decisions (strategy, distribution channel, investment and return on investment, competition and positioning, activities launch marketing, etc.), as well as being able to place industry productions within a social and cultural framework.

This subject has methodological and digital resources to make possible its continuity in non-contact mode in the case of being necessary for reasons related to the Covid-19. In this way, the achievement of the same knowledge and skills that are specified in this teaching plan will be ensured.

The Tecnocampus will make available to teachers and students the digital tools needed to carry out the course, as well as guides and recommendations that facilitate adaptation to the non-contact mode.

Learning outcomes


At the end of the course the student must be able to:

E12.3. Describe benchmarks of independent video game studies.
E13.1. Demonstrate knowledge about the structure and organization of a company.
E13.3. Describe the basics of marketing and market research.
E13.5. Describe business models related to the video game industry
E14.3. Contribute to generating a culture of learning, error management, feedback and criticism management.

Working methodology


The course uses the following working methodologies: lectures, presentations, video capsules, case studies, research and critical reading of articles.

Contents


Subject 0. Introduction to the cultural studies and the cultural industries

Subject 1. Work planning

Topic 2 Content controversy

Subject 3. Legal controversy

3.1 Loot Boxes

3.2 E-Sports

Item 4. Cultural Controversy

4.1 Japanese games in the West

4.2 Selling in China

Topic 5. Fan communities

Learning activities


With the aim of collecting evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following activities of an evaluative nature will be carried out (related to all the common competences):

A1. Group work: Video summary (Evidence of learning outcomes E12.3) 

Students will have to make and present a video about an independent costume analyzing their business management and communication taking into account the learning achieved in the subject.

A2. Individual work: Written essay (Evidence of E13.5 and E14.3 learning outcomes) 

Students will have to write an essay on a real controversy related to the typologies seen in the subject, with critical analysis of the management carried out and proposals for improvement.

A3. Individual work: Reading and commenting on research articles (Evidence of E13.5 and E14.3 learning outcomes) 

Students will be required to submit a chapter of the book Game Production Studies, with critical analysis.

A4. Partial exam: Continuous assessment exam of the student (Evidence of E13.1 and E13.3 learning outcomes)

Passing the exam is mandatory to pass the course. Otherwise, the student will have a No Presented.

A5. Final exam: Final evaluation exam of the subject (Evidence of E13.1 and E13.3 learning outcomes)

Passing the exam is mandatory to pass the course. Otherwise, the student will have a No Presented.

General criteria of the activities:

  • The teacher will present a statement for each activity and the evaluation and / or rubric criteria.
  • The teacher will inform of the dates and format of the delivery of the activity

Evaluation system


The grade of each student will be calculated following the following percentages:

A1. Group work: Video summary 20%

A2. Individual work: Writing a theoretical essay 10%

A3. Individual work: Reading and commenting on research articles 20%

A4. Partial exam: Continuous assessment exam of the student 20%

A5. Final exam: Final evaluation exam of the subject 30%

Final grade = A1 x 0,2 + A2 x 0,1 + A3 x 0,2 + A4 x 0,2 + A5 x 0,3

Considerations:
- It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam to pass the asignatura.
- An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
- It is the responsibility of the student to avoid plagiarism in all its forms. In the case of detecting a plagiarism, regardless of its scope, in some activity it will correspond to have a note of 0. In addition, the professor will communicate to the Head of Studies the situation so that measures applicable in matter of sanctioning regime are taken. .

Recovery:

  • It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam of recovery to pass the asignatura.
  • The mark of the resit exam will be equivalent to the final mark.
  • In case of passing the recovery, the maximum final mark of the subject will be 7.

REFERENCES


Basic

Olli Sotamaa, Jan Svelch (eds) (2021) Game Production Studies. Amsterdam University Press.

Olli Sotamaa, Jan Svelch (eds) (2021) Game Production Studies. Amsterdam University Press

Navarro Remesal, Víctor. "Thinking about the game. 25 paths for game studies." Shangrila, 2020.

Schreier, Jason. "Blood, sweat and pixels." Paper Heroes, 2020.

Webster, James G. "The marketplace of attention. How audiences take shape in a digital age." MIT Press, 2014.

Aguilar, J. Fainé, I., Monguet, JM (2010) Why are some companies successful and others not? Success stories, key ideas and tools to innovate. Deusto.

Álvarez Peralta & Viltard. Strategic analysis tools.

Tringali, G. (1999). 15 proven success stories. How the attitude of companies helps us to overcome moments of crisis. Aguilar.

Complementary

Lee, Seungcheol Austin, Pulos, Alexis (Eds.). "Transnational Contexts of Development History, Sociality, and Society of Play. Video Games in East Asia". Palgrave, 2016.

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Smith, A., Bernarda, G. (2015). Designing the value proposition. Deusto.

Osterwalder, A., Yves Pigneur, Y. (2011). Generation of business models. Deusto.